It happens all too often. Fearing the alleged difficulties of
probate, families add adult children as joint owners to a real
estate deed or onto a bank or brokerage account, hoping to avoid
the Surrogate's court process required to allow the Executor to
be appointed with authority to collect and distribute assets. But
did anyone stop to consider the consequences during your
lifetime?
For instance, adding your children as joint tenants with rights
of survivorship seems really clever and you probably don't even
need an attorney to help draw up a deed and record it with the
county clerk or register of deeds. Great, right? Wrong.
If you add your children as joint tenants on a deed to your
residence or other real estate, you've just gifted an interest
in property to them. That gift likely requires filing a gift tax
return; the amount you can gift in 2022 without the need for filing
a return is $16,000 per person. So, for a couple electing to gift
split, that's $32,000
